The BIG LITTLE ARTS WEEKEND (BLAW) stand at the 2025 Rushlake Green Summer Show was a great success. The offer of free fun activities that all the family could have a go at continued to attract a stream of creative sparks throughout the afternoon. A story with a sting in its tail.
As it happens the Little Arts team’s day at the show could have ended before it started after it was discovered that a vital component of the tent they were planning to use had gone missing. But disaster was thankfully averted when the ever-resourceful WPHPS team came to the rescue and helped to get a replacement tent installed at the last minute.
By the end of the show more than fifty pebbles had been painted by brilliantly creative attendees of all ages. Paint a Pebble proved to be an instant draw. And when the team walked around the show ground, handing out leaflets about the September Big Little Arts Weekend, the offer of a free painting activity attracted young people eagerly to the stand.
Having just a small object, on which to do a bit of art, proved to be much better than for example giving people a larger piece of paper to paint on. Kids in particular got the idea immediately, showing no hesitation in thinking up what they’d like to paint. The brightly coloured acrylic pens meant very little mess, and the results were stunningly spontaneous. Magical little masterpieces that the creators could take home. Here is a sample of just a few of the amazing art pieces . . .
A collage of all the painted pebbles will be posted on the Little Arts Festival website. And there is a plan to have a display of all the painted pebble images at the art show that opens the Big Little Arts Festival. Hopefully lots of people will also feel inspired to enter one or two art pieces in that show. Anyone can take part – so if you enjoyed painting or drawing when you were a youngster and then got out of the habit, now’s a good time to try your hand again.
Also at the BLAW Summer Show stand there was an ingenious poetry scroll, where budding poets of all ages could find a quiet moment to pen a line of two of poetry made up on the spot – inspired by the theme of “I should like to paint . . . .” A compilation of all the thoughtful and evocative lines that people contributed at the show will be published on the Little Arts Festival website https://littleartsfestival.co.uk/.
The Big Little Arts Festival will include an informal poetry reading activity on the Sunday afternoon, giving people of all ages and writing experience an opportunity to share a few lines of poetry that they’ve written. It could be something you wrote in the past, or some lines prompted by things that provoke your thoughts now. The website will also share some other ideas along the lines of “I should like to paint . . . .” that might act as a starting point. Every form of writing will be welcomed: Limericks, Sonnetts, Song lyrics, Short stories (very short please!), Haiku, Rap . . .
If you’d be willing to contribute to the poetry session please email thelittleartsfestival@gmail.com as soon as possible so that the event can be planned.
During the Summer show more than a hundred flyers about the Big Little Arts Weekend were handed out. And, while people were exploring the activities on the stand, the Little Arts team had plenty of opportunities to answer people’s questions about the BLAW project and explain how everyone can get involved in the activities over the long weekend of 25th to 28th September.
- Event Preview night and Open Art Exhibition
- Live 1965 Beatles Albums performance
- Sussex Harmony West Gallery Workshop
- Book Bash (donate those un-needed books, pick up a bargain)
- Rushlake Green Live Poets Society afternoon
We are incredibly fortunate to have such an amazingly professional and well organised Summer Show through which groups like Little Arts can promote their activities to the local community. So we must conclude by paying tribute to the whole WDHPS team for their tireless work in putting together such a brilliantly well run show as always. Particular thanks to Tina, Monica and Sue for their help throughout the day of the show – culminating in some much needed medical advice and support when a member of the Little Arts team suffered an un-expected and very painful double wasp-sting on the tongue (ouch!). And huge thanks to Proctor for volunteering to ferry Paula to hospital for much needed treatment. Paula herself showed characteristic stoicism throughout and was already, by the next day, miraculously back in action . The wasp didn’t fare so well.
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